Nation

‘I helped injured cop before he died’

KOTA KINABALU: A police sergeant told the High Court that he attended to a police officer who was injured in an ambush at the water village of Kampung Sri Jaya, Simunul in Semporna, last year before he died.

Sjn Mohd Mustafa Kamal Ngah of the state Special Branch said he attended to Supt Ibrahim Lebar for five to 10 minutes before the officer breathed his last.

He said he helped another injured officer, Asst Supt Mohamad Hasnal Jamil, into a house numbered 19 on the night of March 2 last year when Supt Ibrahim fell down in front of him.

“I pressed his stomach region (that had been struck by bullets) to stop the bleeding and tried to calm him down,” he said.

He said those who survived the attack, including ASP Mohamad Hasnal, remained at the house for about 22 hours until they were rescued by a team of VAT69 commandos.

Earlier, Sjn Mohd Mustafa Kamal told the court he had been instructed to look for the teams led by Supt Ibrahim and the late Asst Supt Michael Padel.

“As soon as I received the instruction, I went out of the house. I walked for between 10m and 15m when I heard gunshots,” he said.

Sjn Mohd Mustafa Kamal said he took out his pistol and dropped to the ground, and that was when he saw ASP Mohamad Hasnal being chased by a man with what looked like an axe.

After shouting “Down!” three times to ASP Mohamad Hasnal, he shot the axe-wielding man, who fell on the officer’s legs.

Thirty accused, comprising 27 Filipinos and three Malaysians, are being tried in the case, with some facing multiple charges of being members of a terrorist group or waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, recruiting members for a terrorist group or wilfully harbouring individuals they knew to be members of a terrorist group.